The Athletic has live coverage of Saturday’s NFL Preseason games.
Fun fact. This author has been a Cleveland Browns fan for 45 years.
It has been, um… yeah.
The very first year I was a fan of the team, Brian Sipe threw an interception in the end zone against the Oakland Raiders in the divisional round of the playoffs (“Red Right 88”). I screamed at the TV while John Elway took the Denver Broncos right down the field to tie the 1986 AFC Championship Game (“The Drive”). Stared in horror as Ernest Byner fumbled away a trip to Super Bowl XXII the following year (“The Fumble”). Gawked in disbelief when it was announced in 1995 that the team was moving to Baltimore. Hurled obscenities when the team made the single-worst personnel decision in NFL history.
Rooting for the Browns has been four-plus decades of abject misery and soul-sucking despair. Punching myself in the face over and over again.
The factory of sadness, indeed. The Cleveland Clowns. And it won’t be a bit easier in 2025 — because the Browns will be terrible (again).
If they aren’t the worst team in the NFL, the Browns have a legitimate claim to the title of the worst team in the AFC. That’s largely because of an offense that was 28th in yards per game in 2024 and dead last in the NFL in scoring.
That steaming pile of an offense could potentially be even worse in 2025 (Go Browns!), and many fantasy managers are avoiding it like moviegoers avoided seeing “Gigli.”
But as “Gigli” had a couple of funny scenes (not really, but bear with me), a question needs to be asked. Has the fantasy community been too quick to dismiss the entire team as a festering fecal fortress? Could there be a diamond or two in this turd of a team?
OK, that’s enough poop references, even for the Browns.
So let’s look at each fantasy-relevant position group in Cleveland — and see if there’s anything there but dismay and anguish.
ADPs (2025) and 2024 fantasy results are via FantasyPros.
Quarterback
The quarterback position in Cleveland would be funny if it weren’t so tragic. The Browns simultaneously have four (five if you count He Who Shall Not be Named) quarterbacks and no quarterbacks.
The elder statesman of this funky foursome is Joe Flacco, who led the Browns to the playoffs in 2023 before playing last year in Indianapolis. Flacco is easily the most proven quarterback on the team, but he’s also a 40-year-old journeyman who was QB25 in fantasy points per game in 2024.
Then there’s Kenny Pickett, who won a Super Bowl last year holding a clipboard in Philadelphia. Pickett made 24 starts over two years in Pittsburgh and entered the summer the favorite to start Week 1, but the former first-round pick has been nursing a hamstring injury for weeks.
Next up is rookie Dillon Gabriel, who was a surprise third-round pick by the Browns in April. Gabriel threw for almost 19,000 yards and an FBS-record 155 touchdowns over six years in college, but he’s also 5-foot-11 on his tippy-toes and has a hamstring injury of his own.
Finally, there’s Shedeur Sanders, who was supposed to be a first-round pick until he was a fifth-round pick and Mel Kiper lost his mind on TV. Sanders looked decent in Cleveland’s preseason opener, but (wait for it) he’s also hurt after straining his oblique in a joint practice with the Eagles.
What a Cleveland bunch.
Verdict: If the Browns had half a brain, they would give both rookies extended playing time in the regular season — Cleveland needs to know if they have any kind of future at the position before a 2026 draft where they have two first-round picks. But Browns gotta Brown, so Flacco will start 10 games and win just enough to screw things up. If all four wind up starting a game in 2025, it wouldn’t be surprising.
Fantasy-wise, none are more than the sort of depth in 2QB and SuperFlex formats that makes you question your life choices.
Running back
The Nick Chubb Era ended with a whimper last year, and with Chubb now in Houston and looking completely washed (sigh), Browns general manager Andrew Berry hit the position hard in this year’s draft.
In the second round, the Browns selected Quinshon Judkins, who helped lead Ohio State to a national title last season. Judkins looks the part of a three-down workhorse with a do-it-all skill-set, but in true Cleveland fashion, Judkins is both unsigned entering the second week of the preseason and facing a potential suspension after a domestic violence arrest.
Cleveland doubled down in Round 4, selecting last year’s SEC Offensive Player of the Year in Tennessee’s Dylan Sampson. Sampson was wildly productive last year, averaging 5.8 yards per carry and scoring 22 rushing touchdowns. But he’s an undersized back at 5-foot-8 and 200 pounds.
There’s also holdover Jerome Ford, who led the team in rushing a year ago. Ford averaged 5.4 yards per carry and caught 37 passes last year, but 104 carries doesn’t scream “featured back,” and no one will confuse him with Walter Payton anytime soon.
Verdict: This was supposed to be Judkins’ backfield, and it may still be at some point this season. But it’s anyone’s guess when that will be — or even if that will be. He won’t face formal charges, but that doesn’t guarantee he won’t be suspended.
Given that, the best-case from a fantasy perspective would be Sampson shining over the next few weeks, seizing the backfield and becoming a Day 3 revelation. But this is Cleveland, so good luck with that.
As things stand now, the most likely scenario is Ford opening the season as the No. 1 back, with Sampson playing a change-of-pace role until Judkins is a go. Once that happens, Judkins could seize the backfield relatively quickly, or things could devolve into a three-headed committee — at least for a while.
As if that weren’t gross enough, this team has a bad offensive line and will face negative game scripts with some regularity. It’s not exactly an ideal scenario.
Given their respective ADPs at Fantasy Pros, Sampson (RB54) is probably the best “value,” but no Browns backs are better than dart throws.
Wide receiver
Somewhat surprisingly, outside of the addition of veteran Diontae Johnson (No. Just No.), the Browns didn’t do much to address the franchise’s less-than-stellar wide receiver corps, leaving the team with just two wideouts of any potential interest to fantasy managers.
There weren’t many bright spots in Cleveland last year, but Jerry Jeudy was one of them. The sixth-year veteran lived up to the contract extension the Browns gave him, setting career-highs in receptions (90) and receiving yards (1,229) on the way to a WR12 PPR finish. Jeudy was sixth in the NFL in receiving yards and seventh in targets with 145.
Third-year pro Cedric Tillman didn’t have nearly those numbers (a 29/339/3 stat line in 11 games), but the 25-year-old had a moment in the sun. Over a four-game stretch from Week 7 to Week 11 last year, Tillman caught 24 passes for 302 yards and three scores — good for WR8 in PPR points per game over that span.
Verdict: If there is fantasy value to be had in Cleveland this year, it lies with the wide receivers, provided the team gets marginally competent quarterback play.
It’s not like the play under center was stellar last year, and that didn’t stop Jeudy from having the best season of his NFL career. The 26-year-old’s WR33 ADP has crept up since earlier in the summer, but that asking price is closer to Jeudy’s floor than his ceiling. The target share should be there for a team playing from behind quite a bit.
Tillman’s 2025 prospects are cloudier, partly because of durability issues and partly because he’s a downfield threat on a team with major questions at quarterback. But that red-hot month has more than a little appeal, especially given Tillman’s WR69 ADP means he’s essentially free.
Tight end
The fantasy king in Cleveland (at least in terms of positional finish) in 2024 was David Njoku, who turned 64 catches for 505 yards and 5 touchdowns into a TE11 PPR fantasy finish and TE4 finish in PPR points per game. Njoku missed half a dozen games last season, but he was on pace for 150 targets — a number that would have trailed only Las Vegas’ Brock Bowers.
The Browns also added a tight end in the 2025 draft, selecting Bowling Green’s Harold Fannin Jr. in Round 3. The 6-foot-3, 241-pounder is a prototypical size-speed field-stretcher, and while he’s raw, Fannin piled up the stats a season ago — 117 receptions, 1,555 yards and 10 scores. The question now is whether he can do that against a slightly higher level of competition.
Verdict: Njoku’s ADP of TE9 seems about right — the durability and quarterback concerns are genuine enough to knock the 29-year-old into the second tier at his position, but Njoku could be among the most-targeted tight ends in the league on a weekly basis and has legitimate top-five fantasy upside.
Fannin is much more of a wild card. Given Cleveland’s lack of talent out wide, it’s not hard to envision a scenario where Kevin Stefanski trots out a lot of 12-personnel sets. Of course, that depends on how quickly Fannin acclimates to the NFL — there is no shortage of big, fast tight ends who never made a dent at the game’s highest level.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, after 1,500 words on the Browns, this guy needs a shower.
Gary Davenport is a two-time Fantasy Sports Writers Association Football Writer of the Year. Follow Gary on X at @IDPGodfather.
(Photo of Shedeur Sanders: David Jensen / Getty Images)